Shorted Rotor Winding Turns
Detection in Salient Pole
Rotor Machines
Outline
Review salient pole rotor winding design
Insulation deterioration processes
Off-line and On-line testing and monitoring
Case studies
Off-line vs On-Line
Off-line
On-line
Machine out of
service
Expensive
No load
Cold winding
No vibration
Testing voltage
source required
Machine in operation
Inexpensive, saves
time
Normal operation
voltage, temperature
and vibrations
Does not require test
voltage source
Centrifugal force
Synchronous Machines
Rotor windings provide magnetic field
Windings provide ampere turns to develop
rated generator output within limits of voltage
and temperature
Electrical requirements of insulation minimal
Severe mechanical and thermal requirements
Rotor diameter up to 20 m, weight in hundreds
of tons
Cross section of 2 pole generator
N
S
Cross section of 4 pole generator
N S
S N
Cross section of 12 pole rotor
S
S
N
N
S
Salient Pole Synchronous Motor
Rotor
Hydro-generator Rotor
Turbo generator salient pole
Typical Laminated Rotor Pole Assembly
11
Rotor Pole
Turn voltages
Large turbo: 5 to 15 volts per turn
21,200 kVA 3600 rpm generator: 0.52 volts
per turn
63000kVA 100 rpm generator 0.16 volts per
turn
800 HP 1200 rpm motor: 0.098 volts per turn
Turn insulation can be subjected to high
transient voltages
Salient Pole Rotor Windings
High speed machines are 4-8 poles
Up to 100 poles on large slow hydros
Synchronous motors (salient pole rotors)
have lower starting currents than squirrel
cage induction motors
Three types of winding: wire wound, edge
wound and picture frame construction
Voltages: 125-400 V DC
14
Winding Insulation
Typical materials:
- pole piece insulation, wrapped or molded:
nomex, fiberglass/resin laminate
- Pole tips and rotor body: collars from high
strength glass/resin, slip planes on long
poles
- Pre-wound coils potted after fitting on pole
pieces
15
Multi-Layer Wire Wound Pole
Mainly for smaller high speed and larger
slow speed motors
Use rectangular magnet wire to create the
turns which are wound on to pole
Turn insulation is usually a polyamideimide film
Ground insulation used to separate the
turns from the rotor body
Entire pole dipped in or VPId with resin
16
Multi-Layer Wire Wound Pole
17
Strip-on-Edge Pole
For hydro generators and larger motors
Pole winding made from a continuous strip of
copper formed into a slinky or use rectangular
picture frames with brazed connections
Use strips of NomexTM or epoxy-glass laminates to
separate the turns resin bonded to conductors
Tape used at the top and bottom few turns to
increase creepage distances to pole body
Sometimes impregnate entire pole with resin, or
each pole winding is hot pressed to consolidate it.
18
Strip-on-Edge Pole
19
Rotor Winding edge wound
20
Rotor Winding picture frame
21
Rotor Winding Insulation
Aging Processes
Thermal
Electrical
Ambient
Mechanical
Deterioration processes normally take
many years (or even decades)
22
Thermal Aging
Overloading or high cooling air temperatures
Inadequate cooling from poor design,
manufacture or poor maintenance
Use of materials having inadequate thermal
rating
Over-excitation of rotor winding
Shrinkage of bracing materials, looseness
Can result in both turn and ground insulation
failures
23
Thermal Cycling
Frequent starts and stops or wide variations in
load causing:
Relative movement between winding
components
Cracking at interfaces due to differential
expansion
Distortion of the winding conductors
Can cause both turn and ground insulation
failures
24
Repetitive Voltage Surges
High transient voltages can be induced on the
rotor winding from a static exciter or system
surges
Can cause turn to turn insulation faults
25
Contamination
Can be in the form of:
Moisture in cooling air
Oil from bearings
Conducting dust in atmosphere
Chemicals in atmosphere
A combination of these
Both turn and ground insulation failures from
tracking as well as winding overheating
Chemicals can degrade winding insulation to
cause failure
26
Strip on Edge Shorted Turns Due
to Contamination
27
Abrasive Particles
Abrasive particles such as coal dust, sand,
iron ore (grinding) can enter the cooling air
flow
Particles impinge on the rotor winding they
wear away the insulation
Can cause both turn and ground faults
28
Centrifugal Forces
Mechanical failure of the insulation can result
from:
High continuous or cycling centrifugal forces
during operation and starts/stops
These forces can cause rotor winding failures
from;
Inadequate intercoil bracing or shrinkage of
bracing materials in salient pole and round
rotor windings
29
Shorted Turn from Multilayer
Wire Wound Pole
30
Detection of Shorted Turns
Off-line
AC pole drop test, IR
RSO test
On-line
Increased bearing vibration
Increased excitation to achieve same MVA
Magnetic airgap flux monitoring
31
Relay Protection
If fitted, failure of the ground insulation is
normally detected by protective relaying that
gives an alarm or trips the machine
Failure of the turn insulation in one or more
spots does not cause a trip but may lead to
increased bearing vibration (at once per
revolution frequency) and limit the output
An increasing number of turn shorts over time
may indicate a higher risk of ground failure
Insulation may fail suddenly or gradually due
to aging
32
Pole Drop Test
Apply 120 Vac across field winding and
measure voltage drop across each pole
Measure the 60 Hz inductive impedance of
each pole to detect poles with fewer active
turns, and thus lower inductance
Poles with lower than average voltage
drop may have shorted turns
Shorts may disappear when rotor not
spinning, and vice versa
33
RSO Test
Recurrent Surge Oscillation
Low voltage (few volts), high frequency
(kHz range) surge injected into both ends
of the rotor winding
Time domain reflectometry based principle
Identical response indicates no shorted
turns
Magnetic Flux Monitoring to
Detect Shorted Turns
On-line method
Well established to detect shorted turns in
round rotor field windings
TF probe installed on a stator core tooth to
measure the induced voltage from the
magnetic flux as each pole passes the
probe
35
Total Flux Probe Installation
Kit connection
Key Phasor
Monitoring
shaft rotation
Power
supply 100240 VAC
RFA II/
Flux Trac II/
Guard
Flux Probe
Termination Box
Personal
Computer
TF probe
installed on a
stator tooth
Iris RFA II
Installation
TF Probe
TF Probe Termination
Box
Flux Monitor
TF Probe Detail
Machine
Sync Sensor
Local USB port for
configuration
Installation
Connection One Machine
150 m max.
Up to 4 Machines (Option)
Remote Communication
LAN
RJ45 port
Ethernet (LAN)
Off-the-shelf
converters
allowed
RotorFluxPro
SW included
Memory data
downloading
Data displaying
RFA Pro Software
Signal Analysis
High resolution magnitude and time A/D
conversion
Measure flux from each pole
Algorithms developed to reduce the
influence of rotor or stator asymmetry, air
gap variations, etc
If have a sensor to detect a specific
location on the shaft (key phasor), then
can identify the pole number
43
Three algorithms
-Compare pole to average of all poles
-Compare pole to its left and right neighbor
-Compare pole to poles of same polarity
Salient pole flux signal
Change of
Flux Pattern
with Load
change
Compare to average
Compare to adjacent
Use of two algorithms 1
Compare to average
Compare to adjacent
Air gap comparison
Use of two algorithms 2
Compare to average
Compare to adjacent
Shorted pole graph
Shorted pole identification
Non-circular rotor shape
Square rotor!
Four Pole Motor Result
Conclusions
-In general, disagreements between pole drop
test and on-line flux tests are possible due to
lack of centrifugal forces in pole drop test
- Rotor winding insulation is very reliable
However it does age due to thermal, mechanical
and contamination stresses
-Shorted turns can cause high bearing vibration
and may limit reactive power output
